Winnipeg teen 'hero' saves baby from sidewalk bashing

By Gabrielle Giroday, Winnipeg Free Press
September 2, 2009 4:01 AM
StoryPhotos ( 1 )
Tyler Bilsborrow witnessed a woman assaulting a baby on the sidewalk on Chudley St. near Gilbert Ave. in Tyndall Park in Winnipeg, MB early in the morning September 1, 2009. Police said Bilsborrow saved the baby's life.

Photograph by: Wayne Glowacki, Winnipeg Free Press

WINNIPEG — The grandmother of a one-year-old child whose head was apparently bashed against a sidewalk early Tuesday says she wants to hug the teen who intervened and saved baby Vanessa’s life.

“I feel so sad right now,” said Lena Flett, adding the tot, Vanessa, was in stable condition in hospital Tuesday night.

Flett said her daughter Daisy Houle, 24, was devastated by the beating of her child.

“That lady kidnapped the baby and took her in the corner to beat her up,” Flett alleged. “(My daughter) is really upset. She cries off and on.”

Tyler Bilsborrow, 18, said sometime around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, he stepped outside his home to smoke a cigarette and heard whimpering.

He walked toward a darkened stretch of sidewalk where he said he saw a woman sitting on the ground under a broken street light, rapping something against the pavement.

“I thought the woman was drunk, beating up a cat,” said Bilsborrow, who said his nightmare got worse when he realized the woman wasn’t beating up an animal.

“(The child) was screaming, crying, trying to breathe,” he said.

The woman, who was in her 20s, had both her hands around the child’s neck, he said, with the baby’s face away from her.

As he walked toward them, the crying woman dropped the child, he said. She then stood up and staggered away, according to Bilsborrow.

He said the baby lay face-down on the sidewalk and tried feebly to crawl.

Bilsborrow said he took off his sweatshirt and swaddled the bleeding child and called emergency crews on his cellphone.

While he waited for them to arrive, he gently patted the baby’s stomach.

“Nobody in their straight mind could do that to a kid,” he said. “(The police) said ‘You pretty much saved its life.’ ”

Flett said Bilsborrow is a hero for rescuing her granddaughter.

“I wanted to meet him,” she said. “I just want to, I don’t know, hug him or thank him for saving my granddaughter. Good thing he was outside (Tuesday) morning.”

Now in Victoria, BC. I'm from beautiful Jasper Alberta in the heart of the Can. Rockies - will always be an Albertan at heart!

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The official explanation sounds pretty fishy to me ... who goes out at 4 in the morning to the pay phone? How did the brother KNOW the baby was missing? Maybe there's more to it than the impression upon first reading the article and I'm being over suspiscious.

So sad ....

Mother of beaten Winnipeg baby overjoyed teen intervened

By Gabrielle Giroday, Winnipeg Free Press
September 3, 2009 12:01 AM

WINNIPEG — A 19-year-old woman has been charged with attempted murder after a 14-month-old baby was beaten on a Winnipeg sidewalk early Tuesday.

The girl's mother wept Wednesday as she thanked the mother of the teen who saved her child.

"If it wasn't for him, my baby would probably have been dead," she said. "My baby would have been gone . . . When I heard he was there, I was so happy. I was so happy."

The mother, who is not being named while provincial authorities are investigating, telephoned Pearl Bilsborrow to tell her she wants the family to meet her daughter in the hospital when the baby is well enough.

The girl was rushed to hospital in critical condition after her rescue early Tuesday morning, but officials say she's on the road to recovery.

Nikita Solange Eaglestick, 19, is in custody and faces charges of attempted murder, abduction, aggravated assault and failure to comply with conditions of a recognizance.

Pearl said she is so proud of her son, who some have called the child's angel.

The girl was taken from her home at about 4 a.m. Tuesday.

The mother said her daughter was asleep in an upstairs bedroom when she popped out to use a nearby pay phone, knowing her brother and two women were visiting downstairs in the kitchen.

The women, one of whom the mother didn't know, were drinking beer.

When the mother returned from the pay phone, her brother told her that her little girl was missing. She panicked.

"I just started grabbing everything and throwing everything around," she said, weeping. "Somebody took my baby out of my house . . . I didn't know what happened to her."

Less than 300 metres away, Tyler Bilsborrow, who had stepped outside for a cigarette, interrupted a woman repeatedly hitting the child's face against the sidewalk, her hands allegedly wrapped around the baby's neck. Police questioned the mother Tuesday, but she wasn't told the extent of her daughter's injuries until later that day.

She expected to see her daughter later Wednesday.

The police said they are working with Child and Family Services to ensure the child is being properly cared for. Their child abuse unit is investigating.

A police spokesman said the woman in custody was arrested not far from where Bilsborrow saw the baby being beaten.

Police investigators do not know the motive for the attack. They said the woman had no connection to the child.